The invention relates to a display device comprising a first substrate provided with an electric conductor pattern for pixels. The invention also relates to a device provided with such a display device. The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing such a display device.
Display devices of the type described, particularly liquid crystal display devices, are commonly used in, for example, measuring equipment but also in, for example, portable telephones. Moreover, electroluminescent display devices, based on (organic) LEDs find an increasingly wider application.
With the on-going miniaturization of electronics, it is possible to realize an increasing amount of drive electronics on the substrate. However, there is a tendency to manufacture the actual display panel (display section) as a standard component. If such a standard component is mounted by a client into an apparatus, for example, by soldering on the support (for example, a printed circuit board or another type of substrate provided with conducting (connection) tracks), or by clamping, increasingly stricter requirements are imposed on the positioning of the display panel to be provided with respect to the (further) device (mobile telephones, organizers, palmtop computers, etc.) in which the display panel is incorporated. The tolerance does not only define the accuracy with which conducting tracks of the panel and parts of the further device are aligned with each other (and hence resistance variations), but also the maximum quantity of surface which must be reserved for the display panel in the device. Since, due to the manufacturing process, the glass edges in, for example, LCD panels have an undefined edge (tolerance xc2x10.2 mm) in, for example, LCD panels, the display panel can no longer be introduced into the further device without special precautions when increasingly narrower contact tracks (of the order of 40 xcexcm) are used.
It is, inter alia, an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the above-mentioned problem. To this end, a display device according to the invention is characterized in that, for aligning the conductor pattern with respect to at least a part of a device for accommodating the display device, the substrate is provided along its edge with at least a marker.
As will be further described, the marker is provided very accurately with respect to the conductor pattern. This provides the possibility of using the conductor pattern (or a related pattern such as, for example, an alignment pattern used during a part of the manufacture which is not necessarily a part of the conductor pattern) indirectly as an alignment mark in the final assembly. This has the advantage that the client does not need to use expensive equipment (for example, a so-called xe2x80x9cvision systemxe2x80x9d) for aligning the display panel with respect to the further device by means of the usually transparent (ITO) conductor pattern or further pattern. Moreover, the placement tolerance is reduced considerably and accurate straightening of the substrate edges (for example, by means of laser cutting) is not necessary.
The markers are formed as, for example, recesses (having a U-shape, a V-shape, a semi-circular shape or a trapezoidal shape) in an edge of the substrate. Alignment is then effected, for example, by abutment with a counter element in the further device comprising, for example, an optical waveguide. A preferred embodiment of a display device according to the invention is characterized in that the substrate is substantially rectangular and in that two edges of the substrate, enclosing an angle, have recesses. Fixation in the further device by fixing the panel in two directions is thereby possible.
A method of manufacturing a display device, in which an initial substrate is subjected to at least a substrate treatment in which it is provided with a pattern for realizing at least a part of the display device, whereafter the initial substrate is divided, if necessary, into a plurality of substrates of display devices for forming the display device is characterized in that, with a pattern on the substrate as alignment mark, at least one edge of the substrate of the display device is provided with a visible marker.
These and other aspects of the invention are apparent from and will be elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.